Well, hello there baking pups! So, I've been off the blog for a few weeks now. Things were getting real bad health wise. Food and I were in a super messy relationship. I was mindlessly eating: we're talking 4-5 orange popsicles a day at one go (because, you know it's mostly ice, it can't be that bad right?) and skipping breakfast. At night, after work, I would sit down with Netflix and binge eat a lot of shit: popcorn, chips, candy and chocolate. I was drinking a lot of rum and beer twice a week too. What did these 6 months teach me? Well for starters I have gained no less than 10kgs, been lethargic as f*&^ and my migraine frequency shot up. Of course skipping yoga classes became the norm.
Then something switched in my head. I was done with this crap, if I went on with this I was going to get obese and have all sorts of health issues because of it. I was addicted to sugar. Invincible me thought I never could get addicted to that shit. In the before time, I didn't have a single sweet tooth in my mouth. In fact I rarely ate sweet things in my twenties. Then small things changed, eating crap makes you crave crap, and before I knew it I was eating dessert every chance I got, including thrice weekly visits to Naturals ice cream and a crazy ice candy and popcorn habit.
I was looking and feeling like an ugly rock, (no offense rocks, rocks are pretty too), something had to change. *insert coldplay motivational music here*
I studied food again : I wanted to have a healthy relationship with food again and reset my body.I got Hillary Clinton Serious about it this time. I just completed a week of clean eating and I already feel a lot better. I have more energy, I am excited to workout (ok not that excited) I feel my body getting ready to drop the excess weight. I have made a lifestyle choice, this is not a diet, this is work in progress, a commitment to understanding what food really is to me and how what I eat effects the environment, animals, and economics. So what do I mean by clean eating?
For starters it's getting rid of the processed crap which has a million preservatives and processed sugar in it. This means no ice cream, cakes, chips, popcorn, candy, and processed carbs. This means adopting a semi-vegan lifestyle. I have barely had milk and cheese this week and my digestive system is doing so much better because of it. It means understanding how everything you put in your mouth has the potential to nourish your body mind and soul.
Nature has given us SO much abundance, but we rarely utilize it. Coconut milk, flax seeds, nut milk, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and like a way lot more- and what you can do with these things are limitless. But because of the market and advertising and yada, yada, yada, it's just way easier to eat crap. But that's not a real relationship with something so critical to our wellbeing.
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| Vegan Ingredients= the best for your bangin body |
I have been off sweets, but this week I wanted to bake something dessert-like that had no dairy, no eggs, no processed sugar and no flour. And you are like WTF, I thought this was a baking blog, and it is, puppies! You can bake things that taste wholesome, yummy, and indulgent.
Today, I made a vegan semolina (rava) cake using dates, honey, coconut milk, olive oil, coconut oil Semolina, flax seeds and walnuts. Did you know that giving up processed sugar can still let you eat a lot of sweet things? You can eat crazy calories worth of plain fruit, dates, coconut sugar, honey, sugarcane, and other unprocessed sugars because these digest very differently from the way processed crap gets absorbed in your body. This means you can eat a LOT more while still losing weight and getting super healthier. The trick lies in how your body absorbs nutrients. Think about it- having a nice glass of unrefined sugarcane juice is very different from the pure refined sugar you get in fizzy drinks or added sugar juices. That's because it takes like 20 stalks of sugarcane to process like a cup of sugar. Unprocessed sugarcane or fruit actually levels out your glucose in your body without crashing. And you NEED glucose to burn fat. If you want to know more about this look up Banana Girl on Youtube, she is kind of awesome. Processed is SHIT and the faster you can get yourself off it, the faster you'll see results, so I am going to actually eat my words and prove it to you. I will be documenting my health journey (and weight loss) by eating abundantly- eating a LOT. But by eating clean.
OK enough of my therapeutic writing. Here's how you make this cake.
What Do I Need?
2 Cups Rava
1/2 cup mix of olive oil and coconut oil
1 cup coconut milk +1/4 cup water mixed into the coconut milk
1/2 cup ground fresh coconut
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup walnuts
14 dates (de-seeded)
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
How Do I Do It?
Prep time first!
Take the seeds out of your dates and pop them in a blender with 1/4th cup water and your flax seeds.
You'll get a gooey paste. Set aside.
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| YUCKY (but yummy) date-flax seed paste |
Get your fresh coconut cut (I cheated and bought pre-cut coconut from big basket) and pop it in a blender until coarsely ground.
Now in a bowl add you date-flax seed goo, honey, fresh coconut, (coconut and olive) oil, and coconut milk and mix till blended. Add you walnuts to this and then the baking powder/soda and vanilla. Now add your 2 cups of rava slowly to this. The mixture should be wet/sticky but not pourable. If it's too liquidy add rava, if it's to dry add a 1:1 ration of coconut milk and water till you get the right consistency.
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| The right consistency baby! |
Preheat your oven to 180c. Grease a baking pan and scoop you batter in it. Bake for 20-25 min or until our knife comes out clean if you poke it in the middle.
This is a dense food, and even though it has no dairy, eggs, or processed sugar it's still a high calorie food- but it will digest very differently in your body than normal cake. This is best eaten for a power breakfast- eat a good thick slice in the morning and you will be full of energy until lunch. The healthy fats and omega 3 will keep you full and you get a stellar does of protein from the nuts.
Stay tuned for updates on the non-crap eating version of myself, I will post about my weight loss and healthy journey here with kick ass recipes you can try. Happy clean eating!
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